. >>> most americans say our leaders will keep us from falling off the fiscal cliff 20 days from now. that's according to a news pal. 51% say president obama and congress will cut a deal to prevent automatic tax hikes and spending cuts. john boehner says he still has serious differences with the president after they exchanged new counteroffers apparently and talked on the phone last night. now some house republicans are vowing to work through the holidays to get the deal done. ed henry is live at the white house. that's a motivator i suppose, lose your christmas. >> normally when there is a holiday like that, you're right. this forces them to come to the table. right now they are still pretty far apart. there was a phone call you last night between the president and the speaker. officials on both sides telling me tonight the call was pretty tense because the bottom line is they are still not finding common ground. you listen to the speaker today, jay carney from the white house podium, they're still saying that they're farther apart on both spending cuts and tax increases. take a list